Land Rights are Human Rights: Contributing to Fighting Climate Change

At an event sponsored by the Netherlands, held at the COP22 in Marrakech on 15 November 2016, the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Ms Lilianne Ploumen, discussed ways in which climate change can be effectively fought through securing indigenous and community land rights.

Learning from indigenous communities

Evidence shows that securing indigenous and community land rights is one of the key actions to fighting climate change, said Lilianne Ploumen. Local communities—specifically, indigenous communities--have been key in governing land in a way that’s sustainable. “There are a couple of reasons for this,” she said. “They know that their land not only belongs to them, but their kids. Not only do they have a lot of knowledge about the land, but look at it from the potential that it has for everyone.”

Certainly, said Ms Mina Setra, the indigenous approach to land management is defined by long-term thinking. In the forest in West Kalimantan, one elder in the community said, “We have to protect the land. To indigenous people, land is mother. Land is owned by the ancestors. We are only guardians, and we have to protect it for future generations.”

Land rights are also crucial, when it comes to investment in agriculture, said USAID’s Eric G. Postel. “Without land rights people do not invest,” he said.

Moving forward, said Ms Lilianne Ploumen, the Netherlands—which has the world’s highest percentage of registered land (99 per cent) – is keen to share its organizational knowledge. New technologies, including satellites, offer unprecedented opportunities for giving indigenous peoples control over their land, and thus improve the global environment. The project is a crucial one, she emphasized: “Land rights are human rights,” said Ms Lilianne Ploumen.